Summary, Part 1 Cap and Trade

My very nice tenant contacted me today to say that if he needed additional heating, he would consult me to find out what I recommend because he knows I've studied eco-friendly energy use in my environmental science class.  I really am not quite sure what to recommend, but I'm glad that my evangelical zeal has been noticed and will be appealed to!

I've kept a log of my "life style" practices since Oct. 4, so I really should be summing up right now, but that will take more than one blog.  I'll just start right now. 

I've been reading the newspaper with even more interest than  before because so many articles pertain to the nenvironment, and in some case I'll be able to adapt newspaper articles for my ESL students as well as for my environmental missions.

California was, after all, the first state in the nation to pass a cap and trade law--the one started when Schwarzenegger was governor in 2006 and put into effect this past Wednesday,November 14.  That coincided with our lesson this week on climate change, too, and I see ways that I'm going to apply cap and trade in my own life and own classroom.  ESL teachers are already using the permits called allowance with students who are too chatty or too silent.  Each student gets a permit/allowance of two coins.  But they're really not allowed to sell these coins.  They're simply denied permission to emit an utterance after their first coin has been "spent" until all the other students have emited an utterance--equal spewing of carbon except, of course, an utterance is considered a positive thing, unlike carbon-in-excess and we're trying to get everyone to contribute rather than everyone to desist.    But...I can use the "offset" in my own behavior.  I can buy "credits" when I do something good to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to offset other evil, harmful-for-the-environment things I'm doing.

More on that later. Something's wrong with the way the copy is appearing on my computer monitor, and  I can't easily go in and out, so I'll have to give links tomorrow.

Here are some articles: 

"Cap and trade--how it will work," Sunday SF Chronicle  The teacher used this graph in class on Thursday, and it's part of  "Cap and trade comes to state," David R. Baker, SF Chronicle Sunday, November 11, 2012.


I've become aware of John King's column, which is really more than "architecture."  He's the critic for urban design, and now I understand that urban design has a lot to do with sustainability.   

"Next step for green pioneer/Leader in sustainability reaches from S. F. to Walmart to NASA" is John King's column for Wed., Nov. 14, 2012.  This is about Bill McDonough, whose name I didn't even know before, but he's a giant in "sustainable abundance." 

"Climate for sustainable design hot at S.F. event" also by John King, shows a picture of RainHarvest  Systems, which make tanks and other equipment to store water underground for reuse.